Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. As the Minister of State knows well, the Covid-19 pandemic has decimated the aviation industry and tourism sector. It is having a significant negative economic impact on the businesses and employees in the region. In County Clare alone, hotels, guesthouses and tourism attractions are such an important part of the economic life of our county and have been decimated as a result of what Covid-19 has done. We need to see now and to ensure, as we look to the other side of Covid-19 whenever that might be, that vital infrastructure that has been built up over many decades is there and is protected. The real worry now is that as economic recovery starts to take hold it will be concentrated through the main airport in the country, namely, Dublin Airport. That would be devastating to the future life of regional development and would have a dramatic impact on the capacity of County Clare and the entire west of Ireland to achieve economic recovery.

As the Minister of State is aware of the threat, airlines will not be making money on any of these routes for quite a protracted period of time. They are threatening to move aircraft to other locations in the world where rules around travel are less restrictive. We, as a functioning Government, cannot allow that to happen. We are going to have to put in place State supports to protect the key routes and to provide funding to these private airlines, as much as we would not want to do that in a normal time. It will be necessary, however, because these routes are so vital to the economic well-being of the region. There is a public service obligation model which has been used in the past to support air access to routes where they are not profitable for a particular period of time but where their vital importance is recognised for the economic activities in the region. I am appealing to the Minister of State as a representative of the Government to give every consideration to the demands and needs of these regions to provide the appropriate funding to support airlines and to protect routes, so that these areas can recover when we get to the other side of the pandemic.